You've no doubt seen many articles on BenefitsPRO and elsewhere about the crushing impact of medical debt. Some statistics:

• >33% of adults carry medical debt
• 18% of people have medical debt in collections, while…
• …137 million people report problems paying medical bills

Unfortunately, not too much can be done about past bills. But fear of future medical emergency billing is an equal concern, as half of all Americans don't have enough savings to cover them.

Many of those employees likely work for your employer clients. Indeed, overcoming the threat and fear of medical bankruptcy due to emergencies could be the top health equity issue your clients face, and one of the top employee stressors, as well.

This stress is well-founded. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986 (EMTALA) forces hospitals to treat emergency visits, admissions and deliveries regardless of ability to pay.  The unintended consequence of EMTALA, as laid out here by Dr. Eric Bricker, is that, "Hospitals extract as much money as possible from employer-sponsored health plans to financially protect them from the risks of EMTALA."